Bright - by Duanwad Pimwana (Paperback)

About the Book

"Explores the quality of human resilience through the adventures of Kampol Changsamran, a young boy left behind by his parents after their break-up"--

Book Synopsis

Honorable mention in the Global Humanities Translation Prize

When five-year-old Kampol is told by his father to wait for him in front of some run-down apartment buildings, the confused boy does as told--he waits, and waits, and waits, until he realizes his father isn't coming back anytime soon. Adopted by the community, Kampol is soon being raised by figures like Chong the shopkeeper, who rents out calls on his telephone and goes into debt while extending his customers endless credit. Kampol also plays with local kids like Noi, whose shirt is so worn that it rips right in half, and the sweet, deceptively cute toddler Penporn.

Dueling flea markets, a search for a ten-baht coin lost in the sands of a beach, pet crickets that get eaten for dinner, bouncy ball fads in school, and loneliness so merciless that it kills a boy's appetite all combine into Bright, the first-ever novel by a Thai woman to appear in English translation. Duanwad Pimwana's urban, and at times gritty, vignettes are balanced with a folk-tale-like feel and a charmingly wry sense of humor. Together, these intensely concentrated, minimalist gems combine into an off-beat, highly satisfying coming-of-age story of a very memorable young boy and the age-old legends, practices, and personalities that raise him.

Review Quotes

"Enchanting . . . [a] melancholy-tinged but still exuberant novel." -- Publishers Weekly

"Beyond Duanwad Pimwana's devoted handling of Kampol's perspective, what makes Bright a pleasure is her careful effort in crafting a world of people for the boy to investigate . . . Pimwana's use of characterization is superb." -- Words Without Borders

"Bright is a wonderful introduction to a masterful contemporary Thai voice." -- Split Lip Reviews

"Duanwad Pimwana has a knack for finding the gap between who we are and who we'd like to be, and deftly inserting her scalpel there. Across the villages and cities of Thailand, her characters exist in a state of constant anxiety, unable to fit in but having nowhere else to go." --Jeremy Tiang, author of State of Emergency

"Bright is an authentic portrait of a working class community in Thailand, written in a remarkably clean prose style and with profound compassion. Duanwad Pimwana's bittersweet novel reveals glimpses of the inner life of Thai culture in such an entertaining and jocular manner that one can't help but absorb its social realist ingredients with pleasure and ease. With Pimwana's contribution, contemporary Thai literature is stronger, and I believe that this wonderful translation of one of her best works will prove to be seminal for Thailand's place in the literary world." -- Prabda Yoon, author of Moving Parts and The Sad Part Was

About the Author

Pimjai Juklin, whose pen name is Duanwad Pimwana, won the S.E.A. Write Award in 2003 for her novel Bright after making her name on the local literary circuit as a short-story writer. Pimwana is one of only six women to have won the Thai section of the S.E.A. Write in its thirty-seven-year history. Known for fusing touches of magic realism with social realism, she has penned nine books, including a novella and collections of short stories, poetry, and cross-genre writing, and she is currently working on a political novel.

Mui Poopoksakul is the translator of Prabda Yoon's The Sad Part Was and Moving Parts, both from Tilted Axis Press. Her work has also appeared in various literary journals, including Two Lines, Asymptote, The Quarterly Conversation, and In Other Words.